Hathras stampede: Toll rises to 121, FIR says 2.5 lakh people in venue of 80,000
Hathras (UP) (PTI): The death toll in the stampede that broke out in a ‘satsang’ here rose to 121 on Wednesday and police filed an FIR against the organisers, accusing them of hiding evidence and flouting conditions with 2.5 lakh people crammed into a venue in which only 80,000 were permitted.
A day after the stampede in Phulrai village at a congregation by religious preacher Bhole Baba snuffed out the lives of their loved ones, stunned families tried to come to terms with their loss – dazed at how an afternoon out could have ended in such tragedy. Crowds gathered around hospitals, some looking for those missing, some there to identify bodies and others tending to the injured.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met those injured in the stampede -- which took place at around 3.30 pm when the Baba was leaving the venue with some accounts saying people slipped in the slush as they ran after the preacher's car.
"The chief minister held a meeting with officials in the circuit house and met the injured in district hospitals," a government official said.
A team consisting of ADG Agra and Aligarh Divisional Commissioner has been constituted to inquire into the cause of the incident. The report is likely to be submitted on Wednesday.
According to the Office of the Relief Commissioner, the number of people injured stands at 28. Only four of the 121 bodies remained to be identified.
Of the 116 who died on Tuesday, all were women, except for seven children and one man.
A pile of slippers at the spot were mute testimony to the tragedy that had befallen so many.
Where was Baba Narayan Hari, also known as Saakar Vishwa Hari Bhole Baba, the preacher who conducted the ‘satsang’? That was the question as he remained missing and police launched a search for him.
While the state police lodged an FIR against the organisers, his name is not in the list of accused though it is there in the complaint.
Giving a sense of what took place, the FIR alleged that the organisers hid the actual number of devotees coming to the 'satsang' while seeking permission, did not cooperate in traffic management and hid evidence after the incident.
The FIR apparently gave a clean chit to the police and administration, saying they did whatever possible from the available resources.
'Mukhya sevadar' Devprakash Madhukar and other organisers have been named in the first information report (FIR) filed at the Sikandar Rau police station late Tuesday, a senior official told PTI.
The FIR has been registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 110 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 126 (2) (wrongful restraint), 223 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by the public servant), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence), the official said.
The organisers sought permission for about 80,000 people for which police and administration made arrangements. However, over 2.5 lakh people gathered, it said.
The Baba, who was the main speaker of the satsang, came out at about 2 pm in his vehicle and devotees starting collecting mud from there. Due to the heavy rush of devotees, those lying down (for taking the mud) started getting trampled.
Some running away from the spot were stopped by the Baba’s stick-wielding helpers standing on the other side of a three-feet deep field filled with water and slush due to which women, children and men got crushed, it said.
According to the FIR, police and administration officials did everything possible and sent the injured from the available resources to hospitals but the organisers and 'sevadars' did not cooperate.
The organisers also tried to hide the actual number of people coming to the event by hiding evidence and throwing slippers and other belongings of the devotees in nearby fields, the FIR alleged.
Asphyxia due to compression was the leading cause of death, a senior doctor in an Etah hospital said. The hospital performed four times the usual number of autopsies in a day in the aftermath of the stampede, he said.
Twenty-seven bodies were taken to the mortuary of the district hospital.
"Asphyxia due to compression was found to be the cause of death in almost all the cases," Etah's Additional Chief Medical Officer Dr Ram Mohan Tiwari told PTI. A majority of the victims were women in the 40-50 age group.
As the administration and the medical fraternity coped with the crisis, families tried to piece together what had happened, and count their losses.
Amongst them was 29-year-old Satyendra Yadav, who works as a driver in Delhi, and lost his three-year-old son Rovin, affectionately called Chhota. He had reached here with his entire family, including his mother, wife and two children.
The anguished father, who performed the last rites of Chhota on Tuesday night, said he doesn’t remember much of what happened.
Chhota was not the only three-year-old killed.
Kaavya and her elder brother, nine-year-old Ayush, took a bus with their family from Jaipur on Monday evening. It was to be their last.
Ramlakhan, their uncle, said he hasn’t told their father – and his brother Anad.
"I came to know about the tragic incident around 5 pm. They (Kaavya and Ayush) had gone to the 'satsang' along with my wife, who is their paternal aunt. The children, along with other family members, had left Jaipur on Monday evening and they had reached the programme venue by 6 am," Ramlakhan told PTI.
"It's only the poor who meet this fate, not the rich," is how Rajkumari Devi from Unnao put it.
Sitting in an ambulance besides the body of her sister-in-law Ruby said she is worried about Ruby’s five-year-old son who is missing.
"We are yet to find him. More of our family members are on their way to Hathras," she said, sitting outside the mortuary of the government hospital here, around 400 km away from home.
Asked if she had any demands from the government, Rajkumari told PTI: "What do we say now. There's nothing (to ask for).”
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
MUDA 'scam' an "outcome" of power struggle between CM and Deputy CM: Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy
Mandya (Karnataka), Jul 5: Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy claimed on Friday that the alleged land scam in Mysuru Urban Development Authority was an "outcome" of power struggle between the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar.
“It’s an old news. Why has it surfaced now? The MUDA scam is getting lots of publicity now. Who started it? The person who is anxious to become the next Chief Minister and is waiting to unseat Siddaramaiah has done it,” Kumaraswamy told reporters here without directly naming Shivakumar.
Responding to Kumaraswamy's charge, Shivakumar told reporters in Bengaluru: "Some people don't get sleep and their brain don't work without remembering me."
The Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries, who is also the JD(S) second-in-command, said the "news" got prominence only to bring a "bad name" to the Chief Minister so that he can be removed from his post.
ALSO READ: Karnataka state government orders transfer of 21 IAS officers
“This is a conspiracy within the Congress to unseat the Chief Minister by hiring a team of lawyers and extracting documents from MUDA,” Kumaraswamy alleged. “This is an attempt to trap the Chief Minister.”
The BJP has alleged irregularities in allotment of alternative sites to land losers, including Chief Minister's wife Parvathi, by MUDA.
Denying any wrongdoing, the Chief Minister had said the plots were given to his wife by MUDA in 2021 when BJP was in power.
Reacting to this, Kumaraswamy, a former Chief Minister, sought to know what the ruling Congress has been doing for the past one year after coming to power.
“Why didn’t you take action when a file pertaining to the irregularities in MUDA came before you (Siddaramaiah)? Why were you silent then? What inspired you to take action now?” the Mandya MP asked.
The Chief Minister said earlier this week housing sites allotted by MUDA under the 50:50 scheme to land losers have been put on hold pending an investigation into the alleged irregularities.
The BJP has alleged that irregularities to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore had taken place in distribution of sites to land losers by MUDA.
"Apparently 4,500-5,000 sites were allotted by flouting norms," a BJP leader claimed.
The BJP has alleged that alternative sites were allotted to Parvathi in an upmarket area in Mysuru, which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by the MUDA, and sought his resignation.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under the scheme in lieu of over three acres of her land, where MUDA developed a residential layout.
The controversial scheme envisages allotting 50 per cent of developed land to the land loser in lieu of undeveloped land acquired for forming layouts.
Mysuru is the home district of Siddaramaiah.
